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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Santa Claus, Indiana—CONTEST CLOSED

Our route was all mapped out. We googled directions and we had an atlas. We were heading to Nauvoo, Illinois and I was looking forward to seeing it because I haven't been there since I was 15—and it's changed a lot.

So we go cruising west on I-64. Zip through Louisville, heading toward St. Louis, when I see a sign that says, "Santa Claus, Indiana." We had to stop.

We drove into town and there were lots of cool places to visit, but we only had time for one. We chose Santa's Candy Castle.

Megan wrote a letter to Santa.

And mailed it.

Then we got some frozen hot chocolate (yes! they had sugar free) and a few souvenirs for prizes.

It was fun—and inspiring! I had a great idea for a book set in Santa Claus. I've been taking notes on it all day.

You can see more photos of our adventure in Santa Claus over on Megan's blog.

I drove until around 2:00 p.m., then Megan took over. It was at that point that we discovered we should have turned north at Louisville. By this time, though, we were all the way across Indiana. We did some quick math and realized we'd missed our chance at Nauvoo. But that's okay. Being spontaneous is part of the fun of this trip.

However, we stopped at the next Wal-Mart we saw and bought a GPS system. (I spent the last of my birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day money on it. Thanks, everyone.) It was a good thing we did too because when we got to St. Louis, we had to switch freeways and the map I had was so confusing. But we followed the GPS instructions and it was easy as pie.

We have a plan for where we're headed tomorrow, but who knows where we'll actually end up. Today was fun and long, so I'm signing off. There are so many of you I need to reply to and also a few prizes to award, but I'll have to catch that up tomorrow.

Today's Contest (CLOSED): Guess how many states we'll be in on Thursday. There will be a prize for the winner. If there's a tie, we'll draw names from a hat.

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